Late summer, I was working as an assistant manager at a gas station in our hometown, I was angry, depressed, lonely and a heavy pot smoker.
Quintin was working at the same gas station as the "weekend midnight attendant", he was angry, depressed, lonely, and a heavy pot smoker.
Up until this point, Quin and I had led very similar lives. Spinning doors, revolving around absent fathers and mothers who worked too much forcing us to become self-sufficient way too early, learning quickly how to care for ourselves and our siblings. We learned depression and stress and real anger before other kids could tie their shoes. We learned how to lie, and steal, and cheat before other kids could pour their own cereal. We were smoking and chewing and making money in unconventional ways before the children around us knew that those things existed.
We grew up poor, so we grew up fast. Fighting for everything we had, and everything we didn't. Fighting life, fighting love, fighting fear, and people too.
This is how we met; tired, angry, high, and ready to fight anyone who glanced at us in a negative way.
I had known about Quintin for a long time, he ad always been intriguing to me, I saw myself inside of him. But I was mean, and I knew he was meaner.
It would be years before we would really meet, and even longer before we were forced to converse.
When it happened, I promise you that nothing in the world had ever been so great. Nothing had ever been more important.
No comments:
Post a Comment